I’m Emma. I’ve been refining a simple street workflow for cleaner frames on the 7 am commute. I keep composition minimal: one subject, clean edges, no overlaps. if it feels messy, I take one step sideways and wait. Focus is AF-C with a small zone, back-button enabled, and I pre-focus to about 2-3 m when people enter my lane. If contrast is weak, I switch to single point and aim at a collar or bag edge. I shoot RAW, 14-bit, Auto ISO 100-6400, min shutter 1/500, typical at f/5.6. I ride exposure comp while watching the histogram. keep the right shoulder near the wall, but avoid blinkies on faces or white shirts, and I’ll accept a third stop under if signs are blowing. Noise control is boring but steady: expose as far right as safe, don’t lift shadows more than one stop, denoise first in Lightroom, then small, masked sharpening.
I’d drop the small zone for single-point and set a fixed 2.5 m pre-focus. Reason: fewer grabs on sleeves and cleaner edges when you step sideways. For reference, I see a +8–12 percent keeper bump doing this. What’s your hit rate by distance band (2 m vs 3 m) and shutter?